At the end of the first day of filming the White Zombie inspired PorcelainToy music video I asked Elizabeth if she would do a quick photoshoot with me against the greenscreen. These are the result. As a result, I am madly in love with the dress, and madly envious of how gorgeous Elizabeth is.
Being on set for White Zombie was fascinating. I have tons of theatre experience: I’ve costume and dressing for ballets and operas and plays and other live performances, but this was the first film I’ve worked on. It was pretty much what I expected in most cases, but fabulous. I expected that there would be moments of rushed panic (“can you just take in the lapels 3/4″ before the next shot?”) and lots of time sitting around waiting to be needed. I gathered that unlike a stage play, there wouldn’t be an absolute schedule – the order in which scenes were shot got rearranged a little to suit makeup and hair, and if we ran ahead or behind schedule we just did the next thing, or tried to prep for the next. With a play you have to start at a certain time! What I didn’t really realise was how much time lighting would take. That was really the most time consuming thing of the whole day – more time was spent on it than …
This is how I made a 1920s-does-medieval shift for the White Zombie inspired PorcelainToy music video. First, I watched White Zombie literally two dozen times, analyzing how Madge’s dress was constructed. This is what I noted: The dress is made of chiffon, almost certainly silk. It is worn over a satin shift/underdress cut straight across the chest, with thin straps over the shoulders. In some scenes Madge appears to be wearing a different underdress, one with a v-neckline. This one one of dozens of continuity problems with the outfit. The dress has wide rectangular sleeve panels attached at a drop shoulder. The sleeves are bound with wide satin edging (note arrow). The front of the dress is quite slim, but the back of the dress is extremely full, and must have gores set into it. The wide rectangular sleeves have little cut in points indicated in red above. This means the panels are long rectangles with a ) scoop cut out of the middle, and the middle of the scoop sits on the shoulders. This …
